A Coventry Kid's Tale

Chapter 12: THE LAST YEAR AT FREDDIE'S

The child was now starting his last year at school. No longer in 3A with Mr. Powell, but with Mr. Bannister in 4A. The classroom was a wooden hut at the back of the school overlooking the tennis courts. Luckily for the child he had another window seat with a clear view of the girls playing tennis. The next day the child was moved across the class room so he could only have a view of Mr. Bannister. Bum!!! This year at school was to be very busy for the child. The "pre-tech" exam to be taken at the end of the year, with all the homework to go with it, then being chosen for the rugby 1st 15 team, cross country running, not to mention art classes.

The child was also to become a "prefect" and take pride in being one. There were twelve prefects and one head prefect. The school was also to be mixed, i.e. girls and boys in the same class, but this only started with the new first years, "fuzzies". Because of this the child decided not to stay for school dinners. The school dinners were to be mixed as well which meant the child would have to be polite. Instead of racing off to get seconds and thirds he would have to let the girls go first. Instead he started to go to the Cum-Back cafe in Harnall Lane. There he could eat his fill on pie, peas and chips at a reduced price of 1/1p (five and a half pence), 2/6p being the full price to anybody else. The pies were home-made, the chips home-made, but the peas out of a tin. Great!!! One of the first things that happened in this year was the headmaster, Mr. Harris, betting the child he could not swim a mile. The child could not resist the challenge. It meant time out of lessons, so the headmaster arranged for the child to go swimming. The day came and the child went to the Livingstone Road swimming baths. The child duly swam the mile and felt pleased with himself. Upon returning to the school the headmaster said how well the child had done but that was only a test. "Would the child be prepared to take the 'A' badge swimming test?" the headmaster asked. The child replied "What is it?". The headmaster replied "The Advanced swimming badge, nobody has taken it for four years and I thought it might be good for the school if you did it". "OK" said the child nonchalantly. (You can see why the child was in 4A). The day came for the 'A' badge test, swimming a half mile, retrieving a 10lb rubber brick from 10ft (twice), from the surface, life saving and towing them two lengths before getting the saved person out of the water and swimming fully clothed. But the bath attendant did not allow this so it was improvised with swimming another eight lengths. All this was done in a certain time but the child attained the 'A' badge. Next day in assembly, with the headmaster on the stage, he said how pleased he was with the child attaining the coveted 'A' badge and invited the child onto the stage to take it. The child feeling very embarrassed went on the stage and shook hands with the headmaster as he gave him the badge. In front of nearly 400 hundred pupils, was the child's face red !!!!!